Graduate Intern

(Duration: 6 months contract position)

About Us:

The GIZ Offices worldwide are central elements of the company’s structure in the partner countries. They ensure consistent overall representation of GIZ on site and its successful positioning as a service provider in the international and development cooperation environment. Moreover, they GIZ Offices provide content and commercial support services for projects in different areas.

The intern’s core task will be to support the Portfolio Manager in organisational, administrative and technical aspects to guarantee the successful management and strengthening of the projects’ portfolio at GIZ South Africa and Lesotho. In this way, the intern will have the opportunity to gain an overview on several relevant and interesting processes that characterize GIZ’s offices and projects’ work worldwide.

The Portfolio Manager advises and supports the Country Director and the of the Head of Projects with a high variety of tasks to manage and strengthen the current portfolio of projects. These tasks are mainly related to: high quality management and implementation of commissions as well identification of new business opportunities; planning and monitoring of country objectives; preparation, implementation and post-processing of strategic events and meetings with internal and/or external stakeholders; ensuring a coherent implementation of GIZ measures on site; communication with other GIZ units on site and in Germany as well as with local partners; implementation of measures on topics of particular relevance for GIZ, especially Corporate Sustainability; strategic coordination of content inputs in different settings where a “joint voice” from GIZ South Africa and Lesotho is required. In this context, the intern is expected to perform the following tasks:

• A special focus of the internship will lie on the support to implement the Corporate Sustainability Handprint (CSH) process. The CSH is a GIZ internal tool to assess and improve sustainability performance at corporate level, considering not only ecological aspects but other dimensions of sustainability,namely Economic Capability, Social Responsibility and Political Participation.
• Support the logistical and thematic preparation, implementation and post-processing of diverse meetings/workshops/Skype for Business calls with internal and external stakeholders.
• Asist with communication and cooperation with relevant stakeholders in different settings, within and also outside of GIZ South Africa & Lesotho.
• Preparation of relevant (information) materials like briefings, summaries, Power Point Presentations, Excel tables and lists, minutes of meetings and/or action plans, among others.
• Collection, quality control and analysis of data and documents.
• Research on different topics that are important for the successful management of the portfolio of projects.
• Contribute with own ideas and suggestions to different portfolio management processes at GIZ South Africa & Lesotho.
• Assist in other areas and related duties as might be required by the Portfolio Manager’s and/or Country Director’s day-to day work.

• A completed University degree on economics, political science, sustainability management, public or business administration, development studies or another relevant field related to the intern position.
• Academic or internship experience in/with similar institutions as GIZ (e.g. other donors or implementing organizations) and/or in development cooperation settings/topics.
• Academic or internship experience with quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, project management and working with knowledge and information management systems will be an asset.
• Outstanding writing and communication skills.
• Excellent organizational and management skills and ability to work on different processes in parallel.
• Ability to work independently and as well as harmoniously within a team, with people of different cultural background.
• Result-orientation and ability to meet tight deadlines.
• Excellent analytical skills.
• Fluency in English. Knowledge of German will be an asset.
• Excellent IT-skills (Microsoft Office software package, internet research)
• Creative, enthusiastic, pro-active, eager to learn personality.

Applications without a motivation letter will not be considered!